Road Kill

by Ed Chatterton

The outback can be a dangerous place … A chilling short story by Ed Chatterton, author of A Dark Place to Die.Night is falling on the road from Darwin to Brisbane, and long-distance truck driver Skennar is making good time in his gleaming red Titan. He’s been driving pretty much continuously since five that morning, but who cares? His illegal load is hidden nicely beside his legal one, and he’s chatting on his laptop with one of the many lonely women who frequent website chatrooms.Everything is good. Until a white dot looms on the road up ahead. Another traveller.And soon the red dirt of the outback will be stained even redder ….

Genres: Thriller

30 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

I've been writing and illustrating children's fiction for almost thirty years under the name 'Martin Chatterton' ('Ed' is my middle name). In the past couple of years I have been mutating into a crime writer. My debut adult crime novel, 'A Dark Place To Die' was released by Random House in Australia in August 2012. It is published in the UK on September the 27th. The sequel has been completed (to first draft) and will be out in 2013.

I lived in the UK until 1998 and then spent some years shuffling between the US and UK before moving there in 2001. I moved to Australia in 2004 where I have been ever since.

Reviews

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!!! Ed Chatterton certainly packs a punch in this very intense short story. I read the last sentence, turned the page expecting more and almost cried when I realised it was finished. But I guess that's the nature of short stories and this one was a ripper. It was only 3o pages but I found myself gripped by this thrilling story from the very beginning and holding my breath as it escalated to it's chilling ending.

[Brenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't say much about this short story, as I'll reveal too much, but suffice it to say, the horror of what was happening kept me reading until the end, but the ending shocked me and consequently dropped my rating...

[Ed Chatterton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again, declaration of bias needed because I wrote the thing! Free short story download available now from Random House.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A free short story that filled in some of my lunch hour for me. Shorter than expected and finishes abruptly with a particularly unlikeable main character that kept the pages turning to the end.

[Yolanda Sfetsos · Rating 2 out of 5]

I grabbed this short story for free at the Google Play Store and was looking forward to checking it out... but in the end, didn't really enjoy it.

Skennar is a truckie. He's also not a very nice person with a dodgy past. He's a druggie. And cruel. Not to mention a psycho who totally loses it and does a really bad thing over a stupid gesture. I disliked him almost instantly and kept hoping something bad would happen to him.

The ending wasn't great either. :/

Bottom line: I'm afraid this story didn't work for me.

[Hamed · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thriller and breathtaking short story taking place in some deserted roads in Queensland, Australia. The present tense form of writing increases the sense of suspension. The description of some severe scenes was so vivid that I preferred to ignore them by closing my eyes to avoid reading those descriptive lines!

[Andy Behrendt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm glad this was an Amazon freebie. It seems like a book that the author ran out of ideas for and as a result it finishes very quickly and with no real ending. There seemed to be the premise of a much better story hiding within, but unfortunately it seems to have gotten lost.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite a gruesome and gory story.

[Sharyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

So realistic I cannot go into the outback ever again!

[Beatté · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great little short story

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant. Chilling and beautifully written. Full review here:

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